Security chiefs claimed a major success against dissident Irish republican guerrillas opposed to the Northern Ireland peace process on Thursday after police said they had discovered a bomb-making factory.
Four people were arrested during and after a raid on a flat in the town of Strabane, close to the border with the Irish Republic in the west of the province, where police said they found bomb components and six incendiary devices primed and ready for use."It was a major success: four people have been arrested and we've identified what we see as a major bomb-making factory," Northern Ireland's Chief Constable Hugh Orde told reporters.
Police said they raided the unoccupied flat after reports of suspicious activity on Wednesday night.
It was the latest in a series of operations mounted in the area by police targeting suspected members of the Real IRA splinter group.
"This is a significant blow to the dissident republican movement in the north west and will have undoubtedly averted potential loss of life," said Northern Ireland's Security Minister Ian Pearson in a statement.
"Individuals who engage in this type of activity are cowardly, callous and discredited, demonstrating a complete disregard for human life."
The mainstream Irish Republican Army called a cease-fire in its campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland in 1997, a year before the Good Friday Agreement brought an imperfect peace to the province of 1.7 million people.
But two small, breakaway factions, the Real IRA and Continuity IRA, have continued to mount sporadic attacks in Northern Ireland and Britain.
In February the Real IRA, the group behind the 1998 Omagh attack which killed 29 people, planted a booby trap bomb at an army base east of Londonderry.
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